2.0 Communication Skills
Information cannot be effectively received, transferred or exchanged without using good communication skills.
The skills you will be learning in this module are skills that can be used in your everyday communication with friends, family, colleagues and the families you work with. Good communication skills will enhance your relationships with other people as you determine accurately what they are saying, and they know they are being listened to.
When working with women good communication means that you respect the women's own thoughts, beliefs, and culture. Telling or advising her what you think she should do or pushing a woman towards a particular action is disrespectful.
Some health care workers may find this difficult as they have been trained to look for problems and fix them. However, once at home with her baby, the mother will benefit most from the information you shared and the confidence she gained from making her own decisions.
You can use communication skills to:
- Listen and learn about the woman's beliefs, level of knowledge and her practices
- Build her confidence and praise practices that you want to encourage
- Offer information
- Suggest changes the woman could consider if changes are needed
Good communication skills results in the person with whom you are having a conversation:
- developing trust in you
- confiding in you
- reflecting on their personal predicament
- problem-solving for themselves
- accepting the outcome of their actions
- being empowered in other spheres of their life
Lack of communication skills results in the person with whom you are having a conversation:
- distrusting you
- treating you as an authority figure (may not disclose crucial information)
- dwelling on the problem
- allowing you to provide a 'solution' to their situation
- being resentful of the outcome of your instructions
- may cause further feelings of 'uselessness' or 'dependence', being unable to deal with future problems
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![]() Workbook Activity 2.1Complete Activity 2.1 in your workbook. |
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![]() Practise makes perfect!Communication skills are not something to be turned on and turned off at particular times. Develop your skills talking with your family and friends - practise them all the time. |
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Personal Qualities
You will need to develop a trusting relationship with the women, men and families you are assisting at this important stage of their life. Carl Rogers, a world-renowned psychotherapist, described three qualities essential to constructive communication: genuineness, non-possessive love and empathy. Communication skills, without the presence of these three factors, are associated with harmful therapist-client interactions.
Genuineness
The first of these is genuineness. Sometimes called congruence, it means being honest and open - what you really are without front or façade. The genuine person knows it is impossible to be completely self-revealing, but is committed to a responsible honesty and openness with others.
Non-possessive love
Also referred to in some texts as 'unconditional positive regard', but probably meaning more than this phrase allows. 'Non-possessive love' refers to your ability to accept, respect and support another person in a non-paternalistic way. This includes all of the client's frailties and weaknesses, as well as their strengths and positive qualities.
The 'love' you exhibit has the characteristics of patience, fairness, consistency, rationality and kindliness. It encourages freedom.
Empathy
Empathy refers to the ability to really see and hear another person and understand that person from their perspective. 'Putting yourself in their shoes.' Psychologists describe the Apathy-Empathy-Sympathy continuum.
Apathy | Empathy | Sympathy |
---|---|---|
"Yes, well mothers are constantly tired." | "Broken nights can be very tiring." | "I don't know how you cope with being woken so often." |
"There's nothing wrong with breastmilk." | "You're worried your breastmilk may be too thin." | "It's so scary when all your baby has is your milk." |
Apathy is a lack of feeling, while sympathy is 'feeling for' another person. Empathy is 'feeling with' the other person. Empathy involves experiencing the feelings of another without losing one's own identity. If you lose the ability to separate your own feelings from the feelings of another person, you are no longer empathetic.
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![]() Implementing Baby FriendlyFor some, the implementation of Baby Friendly Initiative best-practice principles will involve change. The success of any change management strategy is dependent on effectively communicating the benefits of successful implementation as well as the details of the change. The communication skills you use will be the same whether it is explaining the benefits and details of the implementation to the administrators of your organisation, to your colleagues, to mothers or to community-based peer counsellors.
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What should I remember?
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Self-test quiz
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Match an item from the column on the left with an item from the column on the right. Click on an item in one column, then on its matching response from the other column | ![]() |